358 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Deo, 



and will do more at brood-roaring if they know they have ample 

 stores to nourish all the brood they may raise. So be sure they 

 have uot only itlentv, but abundance of stores. 



CLEANING HIVES. 



In localities where propolis or bee-glue is troublesome, some think 

 it pays well to clean the hives each spring, for in time they become 

 so badly glued that it is not easy to move the framos. Set the hive 

 to be cleaned to one side, and put in its place on the stand an empty 

 hive that is clean. Lift the frames, bees and all, out of thei; hive, 

 and put them in the hive on the s^tand. IJrush or jar out of the 

 hive the few remaining bees, and scrape it clean of bee-glue. A 

 common hatchet is a pretty good tool for this purpose. This cleaned 

 hive can be used to replace the next hive, and so on. 



QUEENLESS COLONIES. 



L\t the time of the spring overhauling, see that each colony has a 

 good laying queen. If you find no brood in the hive by the last of 

 April (and you will hardly undertake spring overhauling before this 

 time), you may be safe in concluding they are without a laying 

 queen. Such a colony is generally of very little value. It is not 

 strong in bees, and what bees it has are probably old and dying off 

 rapidly. Knowing that a queenless colony will rear a queen for 

 itself if it has young brood given to it, you will be very strongly 

 tempted to try to continue the colony, but please don't give way to 

 the temptation. The queen they raise is not likely to be a very 

 good one, and it will be more than a month before any of her progeny 

 will be added to the population, which will be very weak by that 

 time. The frame of brood you give them to raise a queen from 

 will be quite a loss to the colony from which it is taken, and you 

 will probably lose more than you will gain by taking it. Instead of 

 trying to have the queenless colony rear a queen, break it up, giving 

 the frames, bees and all, to other colonies. If the bees are smoked 

 a little when these combs with adhering bees are given to them, 

 there will generally be no fighting. 



MANY BEES VERSUS MANY COLONIES. 



• 



liight here is a good ]>lace to emphasize the point that it is more 

 important to have many bees than to have many colonies. The 

 beginner is very likely to put the emphasis on the number of col- 

 onies. Let us consider the case in spring, when colonies are build- 

 ing up. Sui)poso we have a colony with only bees enough to fully 

 cover one comb. Of course, that is the onlv comb in the hive in 



